1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a rod-shaped test-piece testing apparatus, and more particularly, to a cigarette testing apparatus suited to evaluate qualities of a cigarette and having a simplified construction.
2. Related Arts
To evaluate qualities of a cigarette, testing is made on various items such as the weight, circumference and length of the cigarette, the hardness of a cigarette portion of the cigarette, and ventilation characteristics of cigarette and filter portions of the cigarette.
As schematically shown in FIG. 1, a cigarette testing apparatus of this kind comprises a stocker 1 for supplying cigarettes, a weight measuring section 2 for measuring the weight of a cigarette, a circumference measuring section 3 for optically measuring the circumference of a cigarette, a ventilation-characteristic measuring section 4, having a ventilation vessel, for measuring ventilation characteristics of a cigarette, a length/hardness measuring section 5 for measuring the length and hardness of a cigarette, and an ejection box 6 to which a cigarette having been tested is ejected. In FIG. 1, both the front view and the side view of the circumference measuring section 3 are shown.
Cigarettes received in the stocker 1 are supplied in a horizontal position one by one to the weight measuring section 2 by means of a supply mechanism 11. The cigarette having been subjected to a weight measurement is laterally delivered and rolled by a transfer mechanism 12, to be transferred onto rollers 3a of the circumference measuring section 3. The cigarette having been subjected to a circumference measurement while being rotated on the rollers 3a is delivered by a pusher 13 in the axial direction of the rollers 3a, and is held by a rotary holder 14. With rotation of the rotary holder 14, the cigarette is changed over to a vertical position and is caused to fall into the ventilation vessel 4a of the ventilation-characteristic measuring section 4. After completion of a ventilation characteristic measurement performed with the cigarette held in place in the ventilation vessel 4a, the cigarette is caused to fall from the ventilation vessel 4a.
A rotary holder 15 for receiving the cigarette is disposed beneath the ventilation vessel 4a, so that the cigarette is held in a vertical position in the rotary holder 15. In this state, a length measurement is carried out. Thereafter, with rotation of the rotary holder 15, the cigarette is changed over to a horizontal position, and is transferred by a pusher 16 onto a measuring stage 5a where a hardness measurement is carried out. The cigarette having been subjected to the hardness measurement is laterally ejected from the measuring stage 5a to be dropped into the ejection box 6.
In the case of the cigarette testing apparatus having the above-mentioned construction, the direction of a cigarette must be changed in accordance with arrangements (specifications) of the measuring sections 2, 3, 4 and 5. Particularly, in order to transfer a cigarette from the circumference measuring section 3, in which the cigarette is subject to the circumference measurement while being rotated on the rollers 3a, to the ventilation vessel 4a, the direction of the cigarette must be changed to a vertical position with use of the rotary holder 14. Moreover, another rotary holder 15 must be used to change the direction of a cigarette to a horizontal position in order to transfer a cigarette discharged from the ventilation vessel 4a onto the measuring stage 5a.
The provision of the two rotary holders 14 and 15 for changing the direction of a cigarette is a cause of making the construction of the testing apparatus complicated. For the installation of the measuring sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the cigarette testing apparatus, a sufficient margin of space is required because the supply of a cigarette to the ventilation vessel 4a must be made from above and the discharge of a cigarette from the ventilation vessel must be made in the downward direction. As a result, the height of the testing apparatus becomes large, to make it difficult to handle the stocker which is mounted to an uppermost part of the testing apparatus.
With regard to the cigarette length measurement, as described in Japanese provisional patent publication no. 1-148902 and as with the case of the cigarette testing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, a stopper adapted to abut against one end of a cigarette is provided in a transfer path (passage) in which the cigarette is held in a vertical position and through which the cigarette falls. In the cigarette length measurement, the position of another end of the cigarette positioned by the stopper is optically detected with use of a photosensor.
Because the length and the diameter (thickness) of a cigarette vary depending on a cigarette brand, the positions of the stopper and the photosensor, for instance, must be adjusted in accordance with abrand of a cigarette to be measured. Moreover, a vertical position of a cigarette subjected to the length measurement must be regulated, e.g., by adapting the inner diameter of a cigarette transfer path (a holder, for instance) to the thickness of a cigarette to be measured. Actually however, the cigarette thickness varies among individual cigarettes and this variation can make the inner diameter of the transfer path inappropriate. By using the transfer path (holder) having the inner diameter suited to the thickness of a typical cigarette, it is difficult to always accurately hold a respective cigarette in a vertical position.
Furthermore, in order to position a cigarette which vertically falls during the course of transfer, one end of the cigarette is caused to abut against a stopper, and at this time tobacco shreds in the cigarette are compressed by a falling inertia force, resulting in a so-called packing. As a consequence, the length of the cigarette changes, to make it impossible to carry out an accurate length measurement.